The party meets back up with Eck at the adventurer's guild, and they traveled together to help the person unable to sleep due to noises behind their house. He explains that there is a thud that wakes him most nights when he sleeps in his room. There are marks outside, apparently ladder marks, as well. The discover that the gate is weirdly silent and doesn't latch properly. From some pigeons on the roof they learn that it's possible whoever is apparently looking in his window might be invisible in some capacity.

The party conveys their findings and plan to stake out the backyard in hopes of catching the person that night. Gilbur lets his dogs out since the party has finished their investigating for now. They don't seem fond of Dorean, and when Vera asks about it, they say that she smells weird. She convinces them to give her a chance, because she's a good person. Gilbur gives her treats to offer the dogs, which they eventually take and accept belly rubs from her.

Vera, Mira, and Ward park themselves on the roof; Luna hides in the alley on the other side of the fence; Eck hides in the bushes in the back yard; and Dorean hides just inside the back door. A wiggly shadow enters the yard and goes to the spot below the window. A ladder emerges from the shadow on the ground, and a patch of invisibility climbs the ladder. Ward casts Faerie Fire on the figure, which startled them so they fall off the ladder. Their hood falls off, revealing a young elven woman with incredibly curly hair. She says that she saw him working and that he was lonely, so she watches him to protect him from things at night. Gilbur comes down, so Ward tries to stop him from going outside until the woman has been dealt with.

Gilbur says that he's not interested in dating because it seems like too much trouble. His wife had died ten years earlier, and finding a new partner doesn't seem right. He observes that there's a red-headed woman he's noticed sometimes looks at him, but he doesn't think anything of it. Ward badly lies about how weird it would be if she was perhaps the person making the noises at night. Gilbur picks up on this and goes outside.

Meanwhile, the others are trying to figure out why she's stalking the guy. She won't talk to him because he's not allowed to know or she won't be allowed to continue to protect him. When asked if something would stop her from protecting him, she only feels undirected fear and panic. Vera casts Detect Magic to determine if something is affecting her just as Gilbur comes outside. The woman's eyes roll back in her head and she passes out in Dorean's arms. Vera commands him back inside, which he does. The woman cozies up with Dorean, eyes pitch black now as she requests that they let her go so she can have more fun. She dominates Dorean with a kiss as combat initiates. After several rounds of various party members being dominated and hitting each other, Obsession, the devil possessing the elven woman, is knocked out. The magic Vera detected is gone. They convey the situation to Gilbur and bring Invict inside. A minotaur Thumper arrives, having received a report of a disturbance. Gilbur, apparently a former Thumper, tells him that everything was taken care of. When questioned by the party, Gilbur explains that a situation went poorly and prompted him to quit the Thumpers and get a factory job.

Invicta wakes, confused and uncertain of where she is. She doesn't know Gilbur is beyond a passing knowledge. She is a reporter of sorts, writing an advice column and an almanac predicting the weather using a family artifact that can predict the weather. While going through her father's old things, she found a strange bloodred stone which she still has on her person, though it appears to be duller now. She also explains that her father had been an investor in the factory, and when things went down with the Thumpers had offered Glibur a job. About ten years prior there had been a series of strange, horrific murders. Though the theory had been a cultist having been the cultprit, it had been a high-ranking member of the Thumpers. By the time the evidence had been discovered and presented, the Thumper had killed Gilbur's wife.

As they travel back to the airship, Obsession appears before them, insulted that she had been described as a minor fiend to Invicta. She is upset that the party ruined her fun, but she'll be keeping an eye on the party. After she leaves, they discuss their new group villain with miscellaneous emotions about it. They return to the airship, everyone returning to their rooms to sleep.

Dorean's mind drifts back to when the Shattering happened. She was sprinting through the chaos of town. Lines of light race through the ground, a giant serpentine god visible on the horizon. She finds her quarry, and they clasp their hands and flee for the gate. The gate is stuck closed, leaving the throng of people pressed against it trapped. Two lines of light converge on the group, causing them to pull away from the point where they are meeting. In the shuffle of the people, Dorean's companion falls across the line, calling her name as they reach for each other. And then that section of reality is replaced with part of a tower, her companion gone.

Ward is woken the next morning by a very wet and annoyed Cecily and three similarly soaked kobolds. She tells him to deal with them and get them off her ship. As she leaves, Talthis Vim arrives, telling Cecily to put on clothes; she smacks him in the face with her towel. Talthis, somewhat flustered now, asks Ward about their success in their missions. He observes that they had encountered a fiend, destroying a little whisp of demonic energy hanging onto Ward. With the gods gone, the fiends have more freedom in how they act, though they are still limited, so he isn't too concerned about the group taking care of themselves. He assigns the group guard duty for the show that night, as they've had to make some last-minute rearrangements to the job.

Ward questions how Luna is doing. She feels bad because she stabbed her friends the previous night. Ward hands her the kobolds, and they ask why the kobolds are there. Versilla sent them "about the moon," which has something to do with a clock. The group all heads to breakfast before heading out to Versilla's. As they leave the ship, Ward is pulled to the side and pinned to the wall by Cecily, who proceeds to be very awkward at him. Except it isn't Cecily, it's one of the actresses Alibi screwing with him.

The hunt has returned already, carting a large dinosaur corpse being carted through town that morning. The adventurer group who had gone on the hunt has returned to the guild hall, relaxing and apparently having a good time celebrating. Ward turns in the post from Gilbur. As the party leaves, Hobbs, an adventurer from the group that went on the dinosaur hunt, requests that if the party goes after the corpsewillow, that they take him with them. He explains he has experience with them, and would gladly offer help.

With a side trip to a post office for Dorean to mail money to her family, they make their way to Versilla's tower. Helion sets them up with tea while they wait for Versilla to arrive. Versilla explains the magical items that they had previously taken. She begins by explaining the mirror Vera took is a gateway to a mirror merchant, an item which appears sometimes to adventurers. To repair the mirror, she would need lunar silver, obtained by either mining silver on the moon, or having an arcane [word] and a priest of Meyrin. She could also ask the Astral Wanderer, an entity who wanders the stars and the astral realm. If she is able to get the lunar silver, she need only a drop of it applied ''as'' a droplet while Meyrin is full.

The pocketwatch is missing a sprocket made of a precious stone—emerald, sapphire, ruby, etc.—to varying effects, though they are fragile and shatter easily. Chronotizem, a metal found in ancient ruins of the time gods, is the intended material, but it is insanely rare and nobody has found any ever. Never ever. Vera tries to disappear into her tea while Ward makes her feel bad.

The cape was the first magic item Versilla ever made, and she is deeply embarrassed by it. She wants it destroyed, but Mira looks very good in it. During this conversation, the three kobolds have been telling Eck about how they all hatched from the same egg.

Introduced

• Gilbur - client haunted by noises
• Clyde - Gilbur's wolfhound dog
• Bunker - Gilbur's wolfhound dog
• Invicta - elven woman with curly red hair
• Obsession - devil possessing Invicta
• Alibi - Changeling actress for the Fourth Act
• Hobbs - large lionman adventurer
• Vinter - lizardfolk adventurer

Returning

• Talthis Vim
• Cecily Cardew
• Old Man
• Melisent
• Three Kobolds
• Helion
• Versilla

Mentioned

• Dorean's Companion

• 280gp (quest reward; 46gp each, 50gp for Eck)